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News, Reviews & Opinion - Sean Fagan - RL1908.com

I've seen written and heard said recently this rather perplexing expression: "... in the non-football states...". Have you heard it too? It seems to only come from Australian rules media and supporters.

There is a recent example of it in The Australian (refer to the 2nd last paragraph on this page): http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...012432,00.html

I even heard the term used by a polite looking chap on Fox Sports News channel the other evening. This fellow, identified as an official of a Aust rules club on the Gold Coast in Queensland, said that Mr. Cousins may like to "choose to play football with his club" as it would be "in a non-football state" and "away from the prying eyes of the football media and public".

I understand such term may be archaic, originating in the colony of Victoria in the late 1800s. I was however surprised to see its use in the national media, particularly when I know that in 2007 I have seen football played in its various codified forms in every Australian state, including Victoria.

However, we also know that our AFL-chums claim that their game is the one football code played throughout our great nation as they have teams in Sydney and Brisbane.

Yet, Tasmania doesn't have a AFL team - and I don't hear "the apple isle" referred to as a "non-football state". We also know that soccer's A-League has teams playing football in every mainland state.

Following on, presumably every other country in the world must be considered to be a "non-football nation" by the Australian rules community.

I therefore remain baffled by this quaint expression, "non-football states", and what it means.

On one hand it is an admission that Australian rules is not the dominant code in NSW and Queensland (something many Victorians refuse to admit), and, on the other, it is a presumptuous claim of sole of ownership of the word "football".

The utterance of the term is obviously a throwback to a time when the "Australian rulers" were oblivious to the existence of other breeds of football.

I can only presume there are still more than a few football-dinosaurs roaming Australia's paddocks.